You are here: Home / Virtual Vox Pop: Best console ever?
Virtual Vox Pop: Best console ever?
By Jeffrey L. Wilson On 22 May, 2010 At 11:57 AM | Categorized As Consoles, Slider, Virtual Vox Pop | With 2 Comments

sega dreamcast Virtual Vox Pop: Best console ever?

As E3 2010 rapidly approaches, the invitable video game rumors have begun to circulate. As media, gamers, and insidious fanboys speculate about the show’s happenings, there’s much chatter about a PSP2, PSPhone, Xbox 360 Slim, Xbox 720, and, sadly, Dreamcast 2. These systems, which currently live in the realm of fantasy, have got me to thinking of video game consoles of days past and present.

Over the course of my 20+ years of gaming, I’ve owned just about every system worth owning (except for the SEGA Master System and PlayStation 3 ) and I love them all for different reasons. The Xbox 360 nailed online gaming and digital distribution. The PC Engine opened my eyes to importing and the 2D shooter/shmup. The PlayStation brought a level of maturity to gaming.

But it’s Dreamcast that lives in my heart. In it’s short run, it managed to crank out several titles across a wide range of categories. It had a nice variety of 2D fighters, shmups, and bad ass SEGA originals that represented the height of the company’s creativity. Plus it had a web browser (which I used to download character packs for Fire Pro D) and VMUs.

Although I’d like to think that my word is law (much like a kindly, benevolent dictator), I recognize that it’s not. So please share what you consider to be the best console ever. I promise not to judge even though you’ll probably be patently wrong.

pixel Virtual Vox Pop: Best console ever?

About - Founder and Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey L. Wilson’s love of all things shiny/digital has lead to jobs penning gadget- and video game-related nerd-copy for E-Gear, Laptop, LifeStyler, Parenting, PC Magazine, Sync, Wise Bread, and WWE. Besides overseeing the editorial content at 2D-X.com, the Brooklyn College grad hosts New York City’s monthly Bits and Bytes video game media and public relations meetup. You can find him at a bar sampling foreign beers, or on Twitter doing twittery things.

  • http://www.aggrogate.com Will

    No question. Super NES.

    The NES, Master System, and Genesis all helped bring gaming from the shallow, arcade experience of the Atari 2600 to a unique, deep home gaming experience, and the SNES finished the journey. It offered video games to appeal to everyone, with a quality of graphics and sound that matched the arcade experience of the time (the biggest problem with NES and even Genesis ports).

    Arcade-quality ports like NBA Jam and Turtles in Time. RPGs like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6. Side scrollers like Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Mega Man X 1-3, and Donkey Kong Country. Racing games like Mario Kart and F-Zero. Compilations and remakes like Super Mario All-Stars, Ninja Gaiden Trilogy, and Super Castlevania IV. Fighting games like Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat 2, and Killer Instinct.

    Unlike future Nintendo systems, it had a massive library of amazing third-party games to go with its massive library of amazing first-party games.

    The SNES was literally a SUPER Nintendo, taking the advantages of the original NES (which itself was great enough to bring back the entire video game industry after the 1983 crash) and improving them across the board.

    The Dreamcast was awesome without question, but its small games library and low popularity make it fall far short of my “greatest video game console” choice.

  • http://www.the-other-view.com Valkor

    I hold a place in my heart for the Dreamcast and the SNES had its moments – definitely a strong system. but the Sega Genesis will always be the best in my book. The Dreamcast had a small library (still fantastic titles) and the SNES at that time, didn’t have that “edge” that the Genesis had. You want a system with a unique and wide assortment of titles. Games like the Sonic series, Streets of Rage (1, 2) Vector man, Comix Zone, Phantasy Star series, Splatterhouse, and the shinobi series reign as classics. You want sports? Will mentions NBA Jam for the SNES, but the Genesis version was far superior, not graphically, but it played faster and had an announcer who said more and sounded better than the SNES version. Actually all sports titled played better on the genesis than the SNES. RPG’s – Crusader of Centy, Beyond Oasis, Shining Force and Landstalker. Crazy platformers titles – Gunstar Heroes, Chakan Forever man, Toe Jam and Earl, and Ghostbusters to name a few. Sega wasn’t kidding when they advertised “Genesis does, what Ninten-don’t” and that’s enough for me. A Great system, with great titles is enough to make the Genesis the standout system that beats em all. (But the SNES did have the better RPG lineup, without question lol)

  • http://www.2d-x.com Jeffrey L. Wilson

    Will, I’ll give you that the SNES was the RPG champ, but in terms of sports games, nothing touched the Genny. The SNES sports titles were laden with slowdown due to he pokey processor. The Genny had the speed!

    The Nintendo had first, but only if you really, really, really liked the Mario universe. Sega had much more first party diversity.

  • Jake Boss

    There’s some Sega nut hugging going on here. Sega has NEVER mad a system that was anything close to a Nintendo, expect maybe the Dreamcast/N64. Sega tried to be cool and innovative, but drooped the ball on nearly everything. There’s a reason why they’re no longer making hardware.

  • http://www.the-other-view.com Valkor

    First Jake, you fail if you can’t distinguish the difference between the N64 and the Dreamcast. N64 is Nintendo. And the Genesis was clearly a successful machine and though far less superior to the SNES in graphics and sound (that’s a given considering the Genesis came out in 1989 and the SNES arrived in 1991… i’m talking US launch here) it still held its own in the quality of gaming, giving the players more mature, edgier titles than the SNES (and I’m not talkin about Mortal Kombat. There was blood on the genesis before that aka Splatterhouse). They didn’t have to TRY to be cool and innovative, they actually were the most innovative than most companies with a much better first selection than Nintendo. But they did drop the ball one too many times (32X, Sega Saturn), enough that people didn’t care about the Dreamcast when it landed.

    I believe if Sega had gotten Square as a 3rd party they would have been a contender, hell the SNES was RPG king because of Square. But as much as i love Square, they are dick riders and will jump on the first rod, because it looks bigger and better, rather than do cross platform or produce games for multiple systems. (i.e. they dumped Nintendo because they wouldn’t go CD).

  • Jake Boss

    I meant that the Dreamcast was the only Sega system to top a Nintendo system (the N64).

    Plus, you can’t deny that Nintendo had a better first party. Hell, even the TG16 had a better first party.

  • http://www.the-other-view.com Valkor

    Actually Sega (Genesis) had the better first party games and Nintendo (Super Nintendo) had better 3rd party. It’s like would I rather play Mario, Zelda, Star Fox, or Metroid (or some variation), or I could play Sonic, Streets of Rage, phantasy star, After Burner, golden axe, altered beast, Comix Zone, Chakan, Toe jam and earl, and Sega sports titles…. just to name a few. And the Dreamcast didn’t top the the N64, the N64 came out in 96 and Dreamcast was 1999. It’s like a reverse Genesis vs snes.

  • Jumpman

    No one had a better first party than the Neo Geo :)

  • http://www.the-other-view.com Valkor

    Ah yes, this is very true!